KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Palin aide Frank Bailey placed on administrative leave

Palin aide Frank Bailey placed on administrative leave

by Rebecca Palsha
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A high ranking Palin administration official was placed on paid administrative leave Tuesday.

Last week, Gov. Sarah Palin revealed that Frank Bailey, her director of boards and commissions, made phone calls to an Alaska State Trooper. Palin said Bailey's actions may have been perceived as putting pressure on the department to get the governor's former brother in law Trooper Mike Wooten fired.

Bailey was told Tuesday afternoon he wouldn't be coming back to work at the Atwood Building until after a special investigation into the administration's firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan is complete.

No one asked him to make the call, Bailey said.

"No, no, never," he said. "And it wasn't implied either."

"The governor will not tolerate wrongdoing by her staff, so Mr. Bailey is placed on administrative leave," said Bill McAllister, a Palin administration spokesman.

It was last week when Bailey admitted to making the call.

Bailey and other members of Palin's staff are now being investigated to see if their phone calls added up to pressure to get Wooten fired.

"We figured, if there is an investigation going on with an unknown outcome -- we don't know exactly what (special investigator) Mr. Branchflower is going to conclude -- that Mr. Bailey just needed to step away from the situation, although be available to the investigator," McAllister said.

 Bailey has been with Palin from the beginning, helping on her campaign, eventually landing his current position. But their working relationship took a turn for the worse after the governor found out about that phone call.

At least for now, Bailey won't be coming to work.

"I think he was resigned to it," McAllister said. "I spoke with him very briefly. He did not express a lot of feelings."

"I think since this whole thing broke with the tape, he's understood that he stepped over a line, and that the governor had to do something about it," he said.

The governor's office said Dan Saddler will be filling in until -- or if -- Bailey returns to work.

The governor's office also says that Bailey will cooperate fully with the investigation.

Contact Rebecca Palsha at rpalsha@ktuu.com